Premium
The role of scaffolding errors in reading development: Evidence from a longitudinal and a correlational study
Author(s) -
Savage Robert,
Stuart Morag,
Hill Vivian
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1348/000709901158343
Subject(s) - reading (process) , psychology , developmental psychology , identification (biology) , nonsense , phonemic awareness , cognitive psychology , linguistics , philosophy , botany , biochemistry , chemistry , gene , biology
Background. Identification of patterns of early reading behaviour that predict later reading success is clearly important. Reading errors of 6‐year‐olds represent a source of such early assessment information, but their significance as predictors of later reading is unknown. Aims. The relationship between word reading errors at age 6 and accurate word reading at age 8 is investigated here. Samples, Methods, Results. In study 1, 44 children completed word reading tests at 6 and 8 years. ‘Scaffolding errors’ preserving both initial and final phonemes (e.g., ‘ bark’ misread as ‘ bank’); errors preserving either initial or final phonemes (e.g., ‘ bark’ misread as ‘ bed’ or ‘ like’); distant or unrelated errors (e.g., ‘ bark’ misread as ‘ can’ or ‘ men’) and non‐responses were measured at age 6. Scaffolding errors were the best predictors of word reading at age 8. Study 2 investigated the correlations between word and nonsense word reading, and scaffolding errors in 30 children aged 6 years. Scaffolding errors predicted unique variance in word reading after nonword reading was entered. Conclusions. Scaffolding errors represent a significant qualitative indicator of later word reading success. Implications of findings for early identification of reading difficulties, and facilitating reading interventions are discussed.